The Tyler's Place Podcast

From the Clinic (September 2018)

posted Sep 3, 2018, 6:24 PM by San Jose Scottish Rite

Jacob is a five-year-old boy who attended speech and language therapy services at our clinic from May 2017 until July 2018. Jacob loves to play with his twin sister, Colette, and his older sister, Sophia. He also loves his scooter, playing with his Scooby Doo toys, and playing with his cat. Lately, he has been asking his mom for another kitten! He is very talkative and playful in therapy and has many stories to share with Miss Karen. He loves to tell stories about his twin sister and his cat. He is often thinking of others and always requests that we give a prize to his sister at the end of the session as well.

Jacob was referred to the Scottish Rite Childhood Language Disorders Clinic by his pediatrician when he was two years old. He had a history of many ear infections and fluid in his ears, requiring pressure-equalizing tubes to be placed when he was two years told. He had to have them replaced this April. Jacob’s hearing was being affected by the frequent ear infections and the fluid in the middle ear and he was missing out on exposure to many high frequency sounds during a period of his childhood that was very critical to speech and language development. This may also have contributed to him omitting the final consonant from words.

Jacob’s speech therapy sessions at our clinic focused on the elimination of phonological processes, production of multisyllabic words, articulation of various speech sounds, and expressive language. One of Jacob’s phonological processes is Final Consonant Deletion, when a child omits the last sound in a word, such as leaving the last /p/ sound off of the word “pop.” He was also missing many speech sounds, such as /f/, /v/, /k/, /g/, /s/, “sh,” “ch,” “j”, /l/ and /r/. Jacob would replace many sounds in the middle of the word with an /h/ sound, even when the middle sound was a sound that he was currently able to make, such as producing “baby” as “bay-hee.” He now has more awareness of this and he uses many more consonant sounds in the middle of words. He has greatly expanded his speech sound inventory (the collection of sounds he is able to produce) and is now able to imitate /f/, /v/, /s/ at the word level. He is now also producing /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/ in all positions of words when prompted and given feedback to correct himself if he eliminates it in the final word position. “Prior to getting speech therapy, Jacob would replace many sounds with an “H” Sound. He couldn’t say any “S” sounds and left out many sounds in the middle of words,” said Laurin, Jacob’s mother, “Since treatment began, he’s more aware of saying the middle sounds of words such as “popping” instead of “poh-hing” He is so much more clear in his speaking now.”

Jacob’s family has worked hard with him at home to enforce carryover of the skills that he has learned with Miss Karen. “We have all tried to help him out when needed as he gets frustrated when we don’t understand him. The sounds that are being worked on that week in therapy are focused on during the week at home as well.”

Jacob’s mother said, “We’ve greatly appreciated how generous Scottish Rite has been with letting Jacob get therapy for his speech free of charge. We are so grateful, and have seen such a huge improvement in his speech.” They have also enjoyed their experience here because, “The experience has been very easy. We are able to watch him through the double-sided window as he gets his therapy and we see him using many fun toys to play and learn at the same time. He’s always rewarded at the end of his session which has helped his focus during his session.”

Laurin’s advice for other parents is: “I would tell other parents to seek out as much help as possible and as early as possible. The sooner you get help the better for the child. Jacob couldn’t hear many soft sounds because he had a lot of fluid behind his ear drum. We didn’t realize it at the time because everyone was telling us boys speak later than girls. Luckily the doctor told us that is not really the case and we got help. Had we been more aware he could have been treated even earlier. Also it’s very important to work with your child at home every day as well as getting regular therapy.”

Jacob, you and your family will be greatly missed at our clinic. Jacob had to discontinue services at our clinic when he and his family moved away in July to be near their family in Louisiana and start a new chapter. We will miss you and your silly and cheerful antics! We wish the Antonowitsch family the best in Louisiana!